Silenuspace

Kenny G links for Matthew Quick's Silver Linings Playbook

2010-10-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Kenny G:
Exercise: Before posting your comments about Kenny G on the Silver Linings Playbook discussion board, read the song titles listed below and speculate on the relationship between those titles and the various emotions that Pat feels regarding Nikki, his wedding, etc. Remember that “Songbird” was their wedding song, and that he heard it one day when he got home unexpectedly early and...

Exercise: Again before posting your comments about Kenny G on the discussion board, listen to one of the pieces listed below and freewrite your thoughts and feelings as you listen to the piece unfold. Before judging the piece positively, negatively, or otherwise, see whether you get any automatic or “knee-jerk” responses, and try to see why you might have these reactions, what in your own background (your parents’ favorite music, your friends’ music, subcultural identifications you may have, etc.) might influence your reactions, etc.

Songbird:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGtTblTR0YU

Forever in Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHFWqk08tNY&feature=related

Sentimental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMNM0XO5RiM&feature=related

Endless Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3w9mBAHNs4&feature=related

Loving You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVIdecywafI&feature=related

Always: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M_wsgUPcPo&feature=related

The Wedding Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAV_5MwchLk&feature=related

Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2as1k9HiH7E&feature=related

Romance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZN_rtl0684&feature=related

Michael Bolton and Kenny G: “Missing You Now” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUE7kzI2gdY&feature=related

Silver Linings Links--Matthew Quick

2010-10-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Veterans stadium implosion and other Eagles-related clips:

Exercise: Eagles fandom plays a large role in The Silver Linings Playbook. Some of the specific scenes and occurrences in the novel are shown to be reflected in actual video clips (the Eagles chant, tailgating at the stadium parking lot, fan reactions to Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens). Look at the following videos and then comment upon how they affect your reading of the related scenes in the text: whether they underscore your initial reaction as a reader, whether they give you a different view of the episodes and settings, whether they present evidence that things you had thought hard to believe were in fact based on reality, etc.

Veterans stadium implosion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6JcRbpiST4

Yo Eagles chant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrlu2WeTNNE&feature=related

Fly Eagles Fly at tailgating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niP-K6vMg9w&NR=1

Katie’s introduction to Eagles tailgating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGsPYT1I1kU&feature=channel

Eagles tailgating drunken jousting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1mwJbQIrtc&feature=related

ditto #2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4a9qeb2SZc&NR=1

Eagles fans are insane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auY7x8CWfbM&feature=related

Eagles boo selection of Donovan McNabb in 1999:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBJEfmQA9q4&feature=related

Eagles fans lyrical moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX6c6KU6uRY&feature=related

Eagles fans yell “@ssh0!e” at Terrell Owens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IA5y-IN-LM&feature=related

Terrell Owens cries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJa1O7iHGEw&feature=related

My Life in Poetry: Narrative Poems

2010-01-15T12:52:00.001-08:00

My Life in Poetry: Narrative Poems

When I was in grad school for Creative Writing, 11-12 years ago now, the professors who taught in it were, on the poetry side, dismissive of narrative poetry, and would root out “hidden narrative” in poems that were ostensibly not so. However, I had had a number of years in which narrative was the central element in the poetry I read. Epic poems, such as the Aeneid by Vergil, the Odyssey and Iliad nominally assigned to “Homer,” Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” – even Frost’s “Mending Wall” is about two neighbors doing the annual spring repair of the stone wall dividing their properties, a progressive narration of a shared activity and its implications.

Similarly, I have heard that “poetry is not therapy.” However, when I write my daily sonnet, I find that those which most satisfy me have unearthed some element from my past, or perhaps my unconscious, that in some way fills in the narrative of my life, and gives me some clue as to why I am currently driven, or empty, or ambivalent, or whatever. Here is an example:

Fourth House Thumbnail

That tiny bedroom, maybe ten by twelve,
is not just where I slept, but where my desk
and chair under the built-in bookcase sat.
I had a dictionary and a lamp –
harsh fluorescent white – a can of pencils,
pens, and a compass on my right, the window
also on my right but behind my back.
There I’d perch on weekday nights for six years,
when I would stay at school and walk home late
just in time for dinner, then climb upstairs
while the rest of the family watched TV.
Three closed doors kept most of the laughter out
of my ears. My consciousness was an ant
that slowly would meander across the page.

Those who work in the English and Philosophy department know that I am here in my office constantly – one colleague, in fact, asked me why I bothered to pay rent for an apartment – and I have not lived with a television since, well, since I was kicked out of a commune I lived in during my first stint in graduate school, thirty years ago.

The previous poem captures a typical evening from seventh through twelfth grades, at least during the school year. I did watch television with my family over the summers, as far as I can remember. I suppose that’s how I know the tune to the theme from Gilligan’s Island, can sing the “little girls have pretty curls but I love Oreos” jingle, and can hum the Jeopardy tune that indicates time’s passage while people are racking their brains for an answer – that drives my students crazy, by the way.

The following I wrote one morning when a brief flash of memory popped in my head, and I wanted to get it down while it was still on the conscious level:

Brief Intrusion

I was a child when someone, a youth, came
to our front door, asked if he could come in.
He used to live here, could he see the house
from inside. Anything else I say he said
I’m not sure of, I must have invented.

The only thing I really do recall
is him standing in the upstairs hall
right at the top of the stair. He nodded –
that is the only “word” I remember ,
him looking at the wall, painted light blue,
the window that showed the Armstrongs’ next door,
deciding at that moment not to go
further, he’d seen what he had come to see,
or not, just knew he didn’t need any more.

Now, my mother was home, and she was the one to let in the young man, let’s call him Jimmy Williams for the sake of exemplification. I was maybe eight years old, if that, and I trailed along to observe this predecessor in our house go through his nostalgia trip. I’m still wondering why it was that one particular moment that sticks in my memory, or that at least was the one to emerge that morning, not too long ago.

The last poem of today’s narrative and therapeutic sequence – at least, poems that I write as an adjunct to my therapeutic process, which involves sudden emergences from the past – is the following:

Ominous Dreams

I hadn’t talked to him in a decade,
but he penetrated the screen of my
voicemail and I picked up the phone. He had
had two dreams where something awful happened
to me, he didn’t recall what, but he
just wanted to check and make sure I was
okay. I said I had a cold, but that
was all. He still sounded concerned, as if
reluctant to let go of that omen.
His father’d died, no electricity
for a month, twice. He’d a census temp job,
but he said he doesn’t like to work. I
thanked him, didn’t mention I’d dealt myself
the Tower, Death, and the Hanged Man lately.

The person who called me is someone I had known from elementary school on, and who had appeared at times over the course of my life – my junior year of college, my final year in graduate school, my year of marginal employment right after I’d gotten my doctorate – to impact one transitional point or another. I told him the “me” that had appeared in his dreams probably represented whatever role I played in his own psyche, but you never know...sometimes, as Don Juan tells Carlos Castaneda while they’re driving late at night way out in the country, Death flashes his headlights in your rear-view mirror just to keep you aware of your mortality...

-- Don Riggs

Contemporary Horizon http://contemporaryhorizon.blogspot.com/

2009-12-16T08:16:00.000-08:00

http://contemporaryhorizon.blogspot.com/
CONTEMPORARY HORIZON
A European independent, bilingual and multicultural magazine of contemporary culture and spirituality
marți, 15 decembrie 2009
LYRIC HORIZONS: DON RIGGS (UNITED STATES)

RAFINAMENT ŞI FORŢĂ EXPRESIVĂ
Don Riggs este un poet de un rafinament aparte, şi în egală măsură un artist înzestrat cu o forţă expresivă care nu poate rezulta decât din talentul şi din forţa personalităţii sale. Revista “Orizont literar contemporan” găzduieşte, în numărul special pe lunile noiembrie-decembrie 2009, o selecţie din creaţia sa literară, din care le oferim cititorilor de pe internet ai revistei noastre acest text reprezentativ. (Daniel Dragomirescu)

REFINMENT AND FORCE OF EXPRESSION
Don Riggs is both a poet whose work displays a special refinement and an artist endowed with a force of expression which can't stem but from the talent and force of his personality. “Orizont literar contemporan” / “Contemporary (Literary) Horizon” magazine is publishing a selection from his literary creation in the special issue for November-December 2009, a selection from which we offer our Internet readers a representative fragment. (Alina-Olimpia Miron)
_______________________________________

CRAVING

Concupiscence means having a little
Cupid inside each of us, even when
we’ve just been born, desiring what we’ve just
been jerked from, maybe, or the very first
fruits hanging to slake our thirst, which we had
never known before, back when we were in
the Garden where we had no needs, unless
our mother, the universe herself, did.

So now we’ve had to improvise techniques
from foraging to gardening to field
work to hydroponics to distilling
brandy from fruit juice and whiskey from grain
and sticky black resin from alkoloids
in flowers refined into heroin.

But what about the yearning for union
with the divine? the abnegation of
the self, the body, the will – unless it’s
will that drives one to fast, ignore hunger
– or, better, to focus on that feeling
like a flame the chela gazes into,
subtly shifting, not too brilliant, a bit
of blue or even blackness near the wick.

Exempla abound: the nun who only
ate one consecrated wafer a week,
the guru who must have had chlorophyll
in his epidermis, living on air,
sunlight, and moisture that dripped in his cave.
The hiker who froze to death in winter.

___________________________

INSAŢIETATE

Concupiscenţa înseamnă să avem în noi
un mic Cupidon, chiar şi-atunci
când abia-am fost născuţi, cu dorinţa
să fi fost smuciţi poate. Sau ca
primele fructe coapte să ne-astâmpere setea
ce n-am mai cunoscut, atunci când eram
în Grădina unde n-aveam nevoie de nimic, doar dacă
mama noastră, universul însuşi, avea nevoie de ceva.

Aşa c-acum a trebuit să improvizăm tehnici
de la a săpa la a planta la a munci
pământul la a creşte artificial la a distila
coniac din suc de fructe şi whiskey din grâne
şi răşină neagră greţoasă din alcaloide
în flori rafinate în heroină.

Cum rămâne cu dorul de uniune
cu divinul? Cu abnegaţia sinelui,
a trupului, a dorinţei – doar dacă nu cumva
dorinţa ne-ndeamnă la abstinenţă, la ignorarea hranei

sau şi mai bine la surprinderea intensă a acelei senzaţii
precum o flacără spre care priveşte chela
foindu-se abia simţit, nu prea aprinsă,
cu mucul albăstriu şi chiar negru.

Exemple din belşug: călugăriţa
ce mânca o singură napolitană sfinţită pe săptămână,
un guru care pesemne c-avea clorofilă
în epidermă, care trăia cu aer,
cu soare, cu lâncezeala ce i se scurgea din căpăţână.
Alpinistul ce-a îngheţat iarna de viu.

Romanian version: Sînziana MIHALACHE
Publicat de Daniel Dragomirescu la 13:03 0 comentarii Linkuri de întoarcere către această postare

I, Rowboat links

2009-12-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

I, Rowboat:
In “I, Rowboat” Doctorow uses some science fiction tropes (common themes, patterns, motifs, concepts) that may be better understood with some context provided:
noosphere: http://noosphere.cc/ -- Doctorow uses “noosphere” here to indicate a level of existence which is purely on the mental/idea level, without a necessary physical substrate for the thought to be founded in, as, say, someone’s mind is founded in his or her body.

Further definition of and links about the noosphere:
http://fusionanomaly.net/noosphere.html

the Noosphere and the Internet:
http://jonudell.net/LSAMag2009.html

Navigating and staking claims in the Noosphere, as in open source software: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/

Embodied consciousness / Incarnation / Downloaded mind patterns:
Some science fiction has dealt with the possible separation of mind from body, of reproducing someone’s mind as an electronic configuration, then downloading it into a computer or another physical body:

meat puppets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmD8I0jztWY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgOKY87at3c
Bisson text: http://baetzler.de/humor/meat_beings.html

alien email: http://www.setileague.org/articles/alienmsg.htm

Rachel in Love: http://www.brazenhussies.net/murphy/Rachel.html
Rachel in Love, the Game: http://www.rachelinlove.com/index.php
blog: http://sciencefictionbiology.blogspot.com/2006/09/rachel-in-love.html
movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1058561/

mind uploading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading
http://www.transtopia.org/uploading.html
http://valley-of-the-shadow.blogspot.com/2009/05/us-politics-ais-and-uploading-minds.html
http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2009/01/what-are-the-benefits-of-mind-uploading/
http://www.sl4.org/archive/0510/12444.html
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/virtual-reality/mind-uploading-and-mind-children
http://www.tech-faq.com/mind-uploading.shtml
http://hplusbiopolitics.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/uploading-your-min/

Doctorow on Science Fiction: http://jetpress.org/v19/doctorow.htm

uplifting nonhuman animals: http://jetpress.org/v18/dvorsky.htm

storytelling and future empathy: http://jetpress.org/v19/manney.htm

human-robot relations: http://jetpress.org/v19/kenyon.htm

Journal of Evolution and Technology (relevant issues): http://hplusbiopolitics.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/journal-of-evolution-and-technology-ha-some-reading-material/

Robotics Links

2009-12-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

Laws of robotics:
Asimov’s Laws of Robotics and information technology, by an information tech specialist:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Asimov.html

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics as seen by a contemporary SF writer:
http://www.sfwriter.com/rmasilaw.htm

Microrobot developed to travel in the human body:
http://www.devicelink.com/mddi/blog/?p=1328

History of the Three Laws of Robotics:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Three+Laws+of+Robotics&hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=PfW&sa=G&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=Rx2LSorhGdKgmAfuodS0DQ&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11

The Three Laws as summarized in a future encyclopedia:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/1136/robots/robotlaws.html

2009-12-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

“I Robot” Links:
I, Robot:
trailer from 2004 movie “I, Robot” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0f3JeDVeEo

animated music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJA7lPkb1o&feature=related
http://www.spike.com/video/i-robot-this-is-my/2644623

scenes from the movie:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4927544781783000192&ei=zAuLSvHwG5qIqQKSupibBQ&q=I%2C+Robot&hl=en&client=firefox-a

Will Smith/I Robot parody:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4999544827099474294&ei=jRCLSpjgIqfmqQLD4bmrBg&q=I%2C+Robot&hl=en&client=firefox-a

actual robots for sale at iRobot:
http://store.irobot.com/corp/index.jsp

robot evolution:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/real-life-decepticons-robots-learn-to-cheat/

robot security guard:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/bum-bot-atlanta/

Overclocked Overdefined

2009-12-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

Overclocked Overdefined

Overclocked 39 up, 7 down
A PC or computer that has been rewired or reprogrammed to work faster than normal; usually causing massive overheats and explosions if not cooled properly
What? You overclocked my Athlon and it's still intact?!?!
Source:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=overclocked

Overclock (7 definitions)
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=overclock

Overclock It
When at some early hour of the morning you still haven't gone to sleep you decide to continue into the next day having not slept.
"Man it's like 5am and I got class at 8:30. Think I'll just overclock it because I'll get fuck all sleep"
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Overclock%20It

overclockability 11 up, 2 down
How well something can be overclocked.
I overclocked that CPU to 3.2GHz, it's got wicked overclockability.
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=overclockability

overclocked remix 17 up, 1 down
A popular website with many rearrangements of video game background music. Adds new remixes often and allows remixers to try their own luck at the art of remixing.
I just heard the new song on overclocked remix, I love it already.
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=overclocked%20remix

overclocker 13 up, 7 down
A person who can overclock. An overclocker is awesome.
Shroomer is an overclocker.
get this def on a mug
by Charles Ray Mar 20, 2003 share this
2. Overclocker 4 up, 14 down
An idiot who cannot accept that the people who make the hardware know more about it than they do, and cannot accept to just have things running a tiny amount slower and lasting a whole lot longer, which is generally cheaper in the long run (if you want faster pay more - your only going to end up paying more when you fry it)
Overclocker - its mint look how fast it is
Sensible person - your frying it
Overclocker - no i'm not theres a fan
sensible person - yes but the heat stress will shorten the life meaning someday it won't work
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=overclocker

overclocking 30 up, 41 down
OVERCLOCKING - The process of installing high hopes, dumb luck, and several paychecks into a rectangular box which transmits a signal to a screen that displays your fate. The outcome is usually depressing.
I overclocked my 3.0ghz Pentium 4 Processor to an ungodly fast 4.8ghz Pentium 4 with my Prometia Phase Change Unit
Source:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=overclocking
**********************************************************************
Overclocked game: http://www.overclocked-game.com/

Overclocked game walkthrough: http://www.egcgames.com/content.php?id=749

Generation Digital Divide Gap

2009-12-11T14:01:00.001-08:00

Generation Digital divide gap:

In Cory Doctorow’s short story “I, Robot,” there are a number of references to a generation gap between the narrator and his 12-year-old daughter. These take the form of an intergenerational digital divide. To elaborate on perceptions of a divide between digital natives and older digital tourists, sample the following:

Internet Help Desk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLTsSnGWMI

Medieval Help Desk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

“Bridging the Generation Gap” in information technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeLvhy4xY_k

Digital Divide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ozp9xW6R-w

historical clips from “The Generation Gap:”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Qtzo-UNjc

Digital Natives (“21st century learners):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGfNbbQQCW0&feature=related

Evolution of the Digital Native:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttlLOjy2lTs&feature=related

Early Education of a Digital Native:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwKPDvYA2M&feature=related

Glossary for Cory Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth"

2009-12-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

Sysadmin Glossary

Please note: the abbreviations and terms below are listed in the order in which they appear in the text.

routers: Information processing devices that serve to direct information on various

pathways. These are hardware devices with software in them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router

BGP: Border Gateway Protocol. Protocol: “In computing, a protocol is a set of rules which is used by computers to communicate with each other across a network. A protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection, communication, and data transfer between computing endpoints. In its simplest form, a protocol can be defined as the rules governing the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. At the lowest level, a protocol defines the behavior of a hardware connection.” (source: wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_(computing) ) for further information on BGP, see the following:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/internetworking/technology/handbook/bgp.html

UPS: Uninterruptible Power Supply

independent router’s netblock: See the following description of routing: “An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification and logical address that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes.^[1] Although IP addresses are stored as binary numbers, they are usually displayed in human-readable notations, such as 208.77.188.166 (for IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1 (for IPv6). The role of the IP address has been characterized as follows: ‘A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.’^{[2] “}

^{source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address}

netblock: ”a range of consecutive IP addresses.” source: http://www.linfo.org/ip_address.html

2.0: Suffix indicating the “second generation” of a system. E.g., “Web 2.0” indicates

a new stage in the development of the Web, with new online entities and user

habits (Encyclopedia Britannica online was Web 1.0, Wikipedia is Web 2.0).

Beta Test: “A test for a computer product prior to commercial release. Beta testing is the last stage of testing, and normally can involve sending the product to beta test sites outside the company for real-world exposure or offering the product for a free trial download over the Internet. Beta testing is often preceded by a round of testing called alpha testing.” source: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/beta_test.html

Gold Master: A product, such as a new computer program, released for sale. Read on:

“The term release candidate (RC) refers to a version with potential to be a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization (read QA cycle), all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more Beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bug.

During the 1990s, Apple Inc. used the term "golden master" for its release candidates, and the final golden master was the general availability release.”

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle )

guarana/medafonil:

guarana: Other Names: Paullinia cupana, Brazilian cocoa

“Guarana (pronounced gwa-ra-NAH) is a creeping shrub native to Venezuela and northern Brazil in the Amazon rain forest. The fruit are small, bright-red, and contains black seeds.

“Guarana seeds are rich in caffeine and contain up to 4-8% caffeine, more than coffee beans, which contain approximately 1–2.5% caffeine. The seeds are also rich in tannins and xanthine alkaloids theophylline and theobromine.” source: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/guarana.htm

medafonil: Also Modafinil: a psychoactive drug used as a stimulant Source: http://www.modafinil.com/

servers: “1) In information technology, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs (and their users) in the same or other computers.

“2) The computer that a server program runs in is also frequently referred to as a server (though it may be used for other purposes as well).”

(Source: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212964,00.html )

drive: “A machine that reads data from and writes data onto a disk. A disk drive rotates the disk very fast and has one or more heads that read and write data.

“There are different types of disk drives for different types of disks. For example, a hard disk drive (HDD) reads and writes hard disks, and a floppy drive (FDD) accesses floppy disks. A magnetic disk drive reads magnetic disks, and an optical drive reads optical disks.”

(source: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/disk_drive.html

personal box: personal computer

process monitor: “Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity.” (Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx )

flashworm: “In this context, we develop the threat of three new techniques for highly virulent worms: hit-list scanning, permutation scanning, and Internet scale hit-lists (Section 4). Hit-list scanning is a technique for accelerating the initial spread of a worm. Permutation scanning is a mechanism for distributed coordination of a worm. Combining these two techniques creates the possibility of a Warhol worm,⁵seemingly capable of infecting most or all vulnerable targets in a few minutes to perhaps an hour. An extension of the hit-list technique creates a flash worm, which appears capable of infecting the vulnerable population in 10s of seconds: so fast that no human-mediated counter-response is possible.” source: http://www.icir.org/vern/papers/cdc-usenix-sec02/

zero-day exploit: “A zero day exploit is when the exploit for the vulnerability is created before, or on the same day as the vulnerability is learned about by the vendor. By creating a virus or worm that takes advantage of a vulnerability the vendor is not yet aware of and for which there is not currently a patch available the attacker can wreak maximum havoc.”

source: http://netsecurity.about.com/od/newsandeditorial1/a/aazeroday.htm

Monte Carlo probes: I assume it has to do with this: “Monte Carlo methods are a class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_method )

IP block: “a range of consecutive IP addresses.” source: http://www.linfo.org/ip_address.html

IPv6: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

DNS: “The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System )

Eliza-dialog: “ELIZA is a rather famous ‘conversation’ program that takes text input from the user and tries to react as if it were a therapist of some kind. The ELIZA I deal with below was on a Mac. I was at a friend’s place, and after the conversation he insisted on my keeping a record of it.” source: http://tadhg.com/wp/1997/12/31/a-dialogue-with-eliza/

open a Trojan: to enable a Trojan Horse virus in one’s computer.

http://www.tech-faq.com/trojan-horse-virus.shtml

RPG: Role Playing Game

Cthulhu: Ancient evil beings from the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. For an illustrated example: http://www.apocprod.com/Pages/de_aequilibritatis_mundi/SB6/000000029.htm

Usenet: “Usenet, a portmanteau of "user" and "network", is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet )

PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair, i.e., in the programmer.

Cisco routers: http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Cisco-Networking-For-Dummies-2nd-Edition.productCd-076451668X.html

lusers: (from Urban Dictionary) “2. A word used often by sysadmin or tech support to describe clueless computer users.

“3. A person or group of persons that are very computer illiterate. Sometimes used by geeks to describe people that just use computers.
“Tech support people get more calls from LUsers than Users. LUsers are also known for stupid tech support questions that make it on many sites. People usually excluded from this are users with some computer knowledge or people that work with computers.”

worm-probes: Probes sent out by worms in a worm attack. See the following email thread: http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/netsec/2001-09/msg00035.html

NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology. http://www.nist.gov/index.html

Bugtraq: “Bugtraq is an electronic mailing list dedicated to issues about computer security. On-topic issues are new discussions about vulnerabilities, vendor security-related announcements, methods of exploitation, and how to fix them. It is a high-volume mailing list, and almost all new vulnerabilities are discussed there.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugtraq ) also: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1

kernel patches: First of all, “kernel:” “On the definition of 'kernel' Jochen Liedtke said that the word is ‘traditionally used to denote the part of the operating system that is mandatory and common to all other software.’^[3]”

“Most operating systems rely on the kernel concept. The existence of a kernel is a natural consequence of designing a computer system as a series of abstraction layers,^[4] each relying on the functions of layers beneath itself. The kernel, from this viewpoint, is simply the name given to the lowest level of abstraction that is implemented in software. In order to avoid having a kernel, one would have to design all the software on the system not to use abstraction layers; this would increase the complexity of the design to such a point that only the simplest systems could feasibly be implemented. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(computing) ). Now, “patches:” A patch is a small piece of software designed to fix problems with or update a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, and improving the usability or performance.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_(computing) )

CGI: Computer-Generated Imagery (term used in digital graphics).

soft phone: “In computing, a softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset connected to the sound card of the PC, or with a USB phone. ^[1]” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softphone

sploits: sploitz

“Notable or heroic acts. Often modified by the adjective ‘mad’ which implies an even greater magnitude of heroism.

‘Word of Rucianu's mad sploitz preceded him; indeed, the longer he battled against the oppressive forces of the Empire, the more famous he became to Rebel sympathizers across the galaxy.’ ”

(source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sploits )

boxen: “An alternative pluralization of boxes. In 60-80s hacker lingo (when hacker ment something very different, btw), it originated from vax/vaxen (the, at the time, correct way to referr to two or more vax computers). Because of this unusual pluralization, it because common to use -en instead of -es or whatever else was correct for all words ending in x or with an x sound, such as soxen or socksen for more then one sock. Box was/is usually referring to a computer (pc, server, workstation, whatever).

‘Our server farm runs on 25 boxen.’ ”

(Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boxen )

Electronic Frontiers: Electronic Frontier Foundation. http://www.eff.org/

five nines of uptime: “Uptime is a measure of the time a computer system has been ‘up’ and running. It came into use to describe the opposite of downtime, times when a system was not operational. The uptime and reliability of computer and communications facilities is sometimes measured in nines (similar to the unit of metallic purity). ‘Five nines’ means 99.999% availability, which translates to a total downtime of approximately five minutes and fifteen seconds per year.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptime

DoS: “A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers.

“One common method of attack involves saturating the target (victim) machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.”

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack )

DNS-foo: “The terms foobar, foo, bar, and baz, are common placeholder names (also referred to as metasyntactic variables) used in computer programming or computer-related documentation. They are commonly used to represent unknown values, typically when describing a scenario where the purpose of the unknown values is understood, but their precise values are arbitrary and unimportant. The terms can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea, including the data, variables, functions, and commands. The words themselves have no meaning in this usage, and are merely logical representations, much like the letters x and y are used in algebra. Foobar is often used alone; foo, bar, and baz are usually used in that order, when multiple entities are needed.

“Foo has entered the English language as a neologism and is considered by many to be the canonical example of a metasyntactic variable.^{[citation needed]} It is used extensively in computer programming examples (sometimes expressed as "for once only") and pseudocode. Eric S. Raymond has called it an ‘important hackerism’ alongside kludge and cruft.^[1]”

^1: ^ Eric S. Raymond (1996). The New Hacker's Dictionary. MIT Press. ISBN 0262680920. http://books.google.com/books?id=POlUJW3Z9McC&pg=PA5&dq=foo+jargon&ei=GnIvR8PwGJiSpgK1qIT6CQ&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=hIE0I8TtPGKUbSU-wgDTm4hQ8ig#PPA4,M1.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar )

PDA: Personal Digital Assistant. A handheld computer.

EBU: European Broadcasting Union

dingleberry: look it up urself: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dingleberry

netblock: “a range of consecutive IP addresses” (http://www.linfo.org/ip_address.html )

Googleplex: Headquarters for Google.

(image: http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/googleplex_sgi.jpg )

USGS: U.S. Geological Survey.

RL: “Net abbreviation for ‘real life.’ ” (Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rl )

multitool: Like a Swiss Army Knife, a tool that has multiple attachments for many uses.

worm-load: I’m assuming that, in context, this means that at the particular time in the story, the computers are lot loading (=receiving) very many worms (“worm-load was slow”).

reccy: “Term used by the British army- short for reconnaissance. To survey the area. To become familiar with ones' surroundings.

‘Go over that hill and do a reccy for us, eh son?’ ”

(Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=reccy )

MSCE: Microsoft Certified Engineer. Or possibly others. (Source: http://www.auditmypc.com/acronym/MSCE.asp )

DSLAM: “A DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) is a network device, usually at a telephone company central office, that receives signals from multiple customer Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections and puts the signals on a high-speed backbone line using multiplexing techniques. Depending on the product, DSLAM multiplexers connect DSL lines with some combination of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, or Internet Protocol networks. DSLAM enables a phone company to offer business or homes users the fastest phone line technology (DSL) with the fastest backbone network technology (ATM).” (source: http://searchtelecom.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid103_gci213916,00.html )

weenix: “a derogatory term for ‘unix’ ” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix )

sysop: systems operator

noob: short for “newbie”

NFW: No F*ckin’ Way